2 Marimbas Lead Latin Jazz Sextet in Santa Monica Performance

Julius Wechter and his new group, the Baja Marimbas, will perform at At My Place in Santa Monica on Wednesday, the eve of the percussionist’s 55th birthday. The unusual sight of two marimbas leading the band is all that this Latin jazz sextet has in common with Wechter’s best-known group, the Baja Marimba Band.

And that story, 18 albums worth, began in 1963 when Herb Alpert offered Wechter--who had played marimba and other percussion on several Tijuana Brass albums--his own group. The Tijuana Brass was a relatively dignified group, but its A&M; label mate, the Baja Marimba Band, was something else.

“We were like the Tijuana Brass’ bad little brothers,” Wechter says. “Herb and his group would dress in tuxedos and put on a tight, professional presentation. And we’d flop on stage in big sombreros and old clothes with big pasted-on mustaches, smoking cigars and drinking beer.”

Although the Baja Marimba Band’s music was catchy, distinctive and enjoyable enough to land them spots on virtually every nationally televised variety program, the joking image was not accepted (or even understood) by everybody, Wechter says. “We played the Michigan State Fair one year, in front of 60,000 people. While we were getting ready to play, a carload of immigration people drove right onto the field where the stage was, and the INS people demanded to see our green cards.

“We laughed so hard that they almost put us in jail anyway, just on general principles. We were of Italian, Jewish descent--everything except Mexican.”

And that led to a more serious problem, one that resulted in the Baja Marimba Band cleaning up its act.

“Ricardo Montalban was heading up a campaign to improve the Mexican image, which he felt that we and the Frito Bandito advertising campaign, among other things, denigrated. Of course, we had no intention of insulting anybody; it was all in fun,” Wechter says.

The Baja Marimba Band disbanded after five years, and Wechter takes the blame. “I was drinking too much and couldn’t keep it together,” he admits. “When we quit, we had to cancel nine months worth of bookings.”

Now sober for 18 years, Wechter continues as a free-lance musician. He, his wife Cissy and Joan Greenberg collaborated on a musical, “Growing Pains,” that made its debut at the Room 4 Theater in Studio City in 1987. It was revived two years later at the Westwood Playhouse and will be produced soon in Pittsburgh.

A 1980 Baja Marimba Band reunion album sank with the label it was issued on, and the group’s old A&M; albums are now available only on compact disc in Japan--where Wechter will appear next month in a reunion tour with Martin Denny, now 80. This week’s show, the Baja Marimbas’ local debut, will commemorate the new band’s just-released compact disc, “New Deal,” on the locally based Bay Cities label.

The Baja Marimbas will perform Wednesday at At My Place, 1026 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica. Admission is $10. The show begins at 8 p.m. with a performance by Rosemary Butler. For information, call (213) 451-8597.